The Mark Arum Show 08-20-26 HR 2

see that but ultimately the argument the administration is making is that there are elements of this ballroom project beyond the idea of hosting large events for the president uh... to have state dinners that there are security related features in this such as the drone port on the roof and the blast proof columns and the underground bunker facilities to replace the bunker that previously was there but was destroyed by the president uh... all of this is the argument that the administration is making to the justice is for why the court should step in now and prevent the lower court's injunction from taking effect. Stephen, if the court rules against the administration, what happens to what has been going on there on the White House compound? It's a really good question. The president was asked yesterday, what will he do if the court rules against him? And he basically says, well, I hope that doesn't happen. I don't see how that could happen. And I'm paraphrasing, not a direct quote there, but that's the essence of what the president was saying. He didn't say that he would reject or otherwise not follow an order of this. Supreme Court, but he hopes it doesn't happen. One of the arguments that the administration is made in its filings to the Supreme Court is that this project is so far along, at last check, 65% completed, according to the officials, that it's beyond the point of no return, that the steel and concrete superstructure is all interconnected, and in the words of one senior official, if they had to stop, it would be a disaster. And the effort is to try to compel the justices to not make the president stop this construction and leave it as sort of this open site, open pit, if you will, a half-constructed edifice. One other argument that the administration is making, which we should point out, is the idea that the National Trust for Historic Preservation doesn't have standing to bring this lawsuit. Now, the district court and appeals court have recognized the standing of the group, but we'll see if that argument is persuasive on the justices. Stephen Portnoy from ABC News joining us on the market. I'm sure the question I've continuously asked myself and the listener, Stephen, is Republicans control the House and the Senate. Why didn't President Trump just ask his bodies of the legislative branch to approve the money to do this, right? If that had happened, we wouldn't be dealing with courts or any of this. The exact same question was posed by Judge Richard Leone, a George W. Bush appointee who received this case. and ruled earlier this year against the administration, making the same point that all the president would have to do is go to Capitol Hill, make the same arguments that he's making to the justices, and hope that America's legislature would agree. Instead, he's decided to move forward without asking and hope that by persuading the justices, he can continue to do it. We'll see if that argument works. And I think relatedly yesterday you saw President Trump talking to reporters outside the White House detailing other projects going on. There was talk of granite, et cetera. Did we get any takeaways from that yesterday? Well, I think one of the key takeaways is the idea that, you know, it's sort of an emblem and illustration of the extent to which the president spends his days in office focused on projects like this, whether it's the helipad that he's having installed on the South Lawn for a new helicopter that has yet to be delivered or the, you know, the white... Granite that he described with the curvature, yesterday replacing the asphalt that was there for decades, the idea that he wants to build his massive ballroom and Triumphal Arch and remake Lafayette Park across the street from the White House. There are indications that this is what the president spends most of his time focused on it. He described it yesterday as well, you know, he's a real estate developer and these are the things he believes he's good at. Well, sure. And there's...

No argument that the president also focuses on other things, many other things through the course of his days, but it was really striking yesterday in the midst of everything else that we're focused on is that the national debt reaches $40 trillion, doubling in the span of a decade, that the president's focused on how to make the White House. you know, look and feel more luxurious as an emblem and symbol of America. Well, all that's true, but it just really, it is a contrast. And as he said yesterday, he's a builder. He certainly is. Stephen Portnoy, ABC News. Stephen, appreciate your time, as always, my friend. You back. A lot to unpack there. First and foremost, if you are an executive at HGTV, you're on the phone right now to President Trump. President, hey, once you term out, we got a show for you. I would love that. Right, President Trump, I don't know how it would work. Like President Trump redoing historical, you know, mansions or whatever. And he goes in and like... That's a layup of a TV show. I watched those for hours on end. Right? Like President Trump, oh, we need the granite here. Oh, let's get a helipad there. Like an updated version of Cribs. I watched so many castle renovation shows. It's basically what it would be. Yeah. I mean, that's a layup. Second of all. And President Trump said this, to be fair, he's like, I'm not doing this for me. I'm doing this for future presidents. Like, I'm not going to be in office when all of this stuff is done. You know, so his vision, he wants other presidents to reap the rewards of his effort here to redo the White House compound. I don't know who's going to be the next president in the United States. I don't know if it's going to be a Democrat or Republican. I don't know when the next Democrat will inhabit the Oval Office. No one knows that. But I know when it eventually happens. The next time there's a Democrat that is a president of United States, every single thing that President Trump has done will be erased. Not just, you know, the ballroom. The granite, whatever changes that president, I could see the next time a Democrat is president that the ballroom is dismantled. The East Wing is rebuilt. And they bring back the White House to what it used to look like prior to this second term. The big arch that he's planning. I don't know. Is that still in the pipeline? I think that's still in the works. Yeah. That will be taken. Like literally everything he's doing now, the next Democratic president, whatever that may be is going to. erase everything he's done every change he's made to the white house the to the dc monuments to whatever they're gonna they're good they're just gonna erase it i don't know when that's gonna be 2028 or beyond but that's my prediction that no whatever president trump does in the second term

will be at least attempted to be erased by the next Democratic president. Speaking of Democrats in case you missed it the breaking news this morning, we had Greg Blustein on from the Atlanta Journal Constitution. Atlanta was one of five cities in the running to host the 2028 Democratic National Convention no longer. And we heard from Greg, Mayor Dickens, not very happy about that. Chicago and Atlanta were trimmed from the list. The rest of the cities remaining are Denver, Boston, and Philadelphia. Philadelphia, I understand founding fathers, history, whatever, but that's a lesser city. Not that I'm going, but Boston and Denver are really cool cities. I like both Boston and Denver. All right, so President Trump took to True Social this morning or late last night to update us on what his plans with Iran are. And what he's, what he posted is impacting the oil market. Oil's up 2.34%. What did President Trump post considering, the Iran War. I'm going to quote from True Social right here from real Donald Trump. Why didn't he just get Donald Trump on that? Why did you like the real? You do that one. You can't get your full name. Like the real Vinnie Drip or the real Deborah Green. Like you started anyway. I digress. Quote, no one has given the Islamic Republic of Iran a greater opportunity to make a deal than me. Tragically for them, they have failed to take it. Therefore, today I'm announcing. the most crushing economic operation ever taken against any country. This will be economic warfare and isolation on an unprecedented scale. Their Navy is gone. Their air force is destroyed. Their military factories are now rubble. Their currency is worthless and their country is hanging by a thread. Today I'm also announcing that any country that allows its financial institutions, businesses, airports, or government entities to provide any type of lifeline to Iran will face tremendous economic consequences. Oil smuggling, swap lines, cash transfers, exchange houses. ships registries front companies it all needs to stop now you know who you are this will be an economic d day And we all need of all of our allies to stand with the United States of America to isolate and defeat the Iran threat. These maniacs are on the ropes and these historic measures will cripple them and their ability to project terror worldwide. Iran will never have a nuclear weapon. Thank you for your attention to this matter, President Donald J. Trump. So a lot to unpack there. Betsy Klein, really severe threats by the president to Iran economically on true social. Intense indeed. President Trump is making the calculation. here that economic pressure is going to be able to achieve what military force so far has been unable to accomplish, and that is to bring Iran to the negotiating table in a meaningful way. For Iran, though, that really remains to be seen. We've reported that President Trump has told his top envoys to halt talks with Iran until its leaders signal any fresh willingness to make a deal. And the White House is telling its political allies that there is a shift in strategy here. They are moving.

away from hammer Iran ASAP to a more long-term strangle them strategy here. The president now announcing an economic step. He says in a post to social media, quote, I am announcing the most crushing economic operation ever taken against any country. He goes on to say this will be economic warfare and isolation on an unprecedented scale. Now, the president went on to say that there is going to be consequences for any country that provides any lifeline to Iran, an economic deed day. Iran so far dismissing this threat. Betsy Klein at the White House this morning. The key line to me in this true social post is, quote, you know who you are. That's China and maybe Russia. But that's that, that is the, those are the only two countries that really could provide Iran an economic lifetime. President Trump is hosting the Chinese president end of September. Do we have enough juice, economic juice, to pressure China to cut off ties with Iran? Will that be the, is that meeting in September at the White House with President Xi Jinping? Is that too late? Are we going to see this economic pressure before then, after then, during that meeting? Very, very curious. Very, very curious. I mentioned oil is down. Markets are down as well. Dow's down 400. Nasdaq's down 200. S&P is down 500. Cryptos popping, though. Good for you, Deborah. Bitcoin's up $3,300 today. 1017 on the Mark Aram show. When we come back, remember the White House correspondence dinner shooting? Well, the shooter is going to be in front of a judge. We'll get that story from Tom Dempsey from News Nation. 1023 on the Mark Am show. Seems like forever ago. We had that shooting at the White House correspondence dinner in D.C., but it was just in April. The suspect, Cole Thomas Allen, back in the headlines today, joining us live covering this story for News Nation. Tom Dempsey. Tom, good morning, my friend. Yeah, good morning. I'm actually outside the federal courthouse right now here in D.C. Literally as we speak, we think this status conference is happening for this case. And I say we think because cell phones actually aren't allowed inside the federal courtroom. So News Nation has a producer inside right now. I'm waiting outside. And the thing is, the big thing to keep an eye on with this status conference that was slated to kick off at. 10 a.m. Eastern time is a trial date. We might learn about that today. Like you said, this case dates back to April. The White House correspondence in a really scary situation where this guy rushed a security checkpoint armed with at least one gun and knives. And the investigators are saying the plan was to try and get up close to President Donald Trump and shoot him. So this is an attempted assassination case here. And Cole Allen is his name, 31 years old. He's the suspect. He's expected to be in the courtroom for this status conference facing all sorts of charges. He's pleaded not guilty and could face life behind bars of convicted. Tom, there are some questions right after the shooting. If the suspect even was able to fire his gun at all, did we get any clarification, ballistically, that he did indeed shoot his gun at that hotel?

Yeah, he did fire. He, I mean, one of the charges, he's facing a number of charges right now. And one of them is shooting at a Secret Service agent. And that Secret Service agent, thank God, was wearing a bulletproof vest. And so he survived. But, yeah, it was just such a crazy incident because, you know, I've been to the White House Correspondent Center before. And it's obviously a big night, big gala sort of celebration. Everyone's dressed up. And then you have something like this happened. It's really, really scary. And this, like I said, the Secret Service agent was shot. not necessarily injured because he was wearing a bulletproof vest, but that is also one of the charges against the suspect. All right. So federal court, no cameras, no microphones, no cell phones, but we expect maybe a trial date set today. Do we know if Cole Thomas Allen has representation, a public defender? Does he have a high-profile defense lawyer? I don't know that specific detail. I do know, though, that he has pleaded not guilty against these charges. And there have been some sort of details that have trickled down about Cole Allen, like I said, 31 years old. But investigators were saying he actually traveled cross country ahead of this incident all the way from California. And he checked into the hotel where the White House correspondent's there was the night before. So I'm sure this is all going to be picked over, whatever this trial happens. going in what was sort of the motive and what was going through his head and what was sort of you know what would we learned in the days and weeks beforehand because there's obviously still questions going around is that you know what the heck was this guy thinking and Thankfully, he was stopped and no one was seriously harmed. But, you know, like I said, he's facing all sorts of charges and now faces the possibility of life in prison. Yeah, that's interesting. I'll end with that. Four charges he's facing, including attempted assassination of the president, assaulting a law enforcement officer with a deadly weapon. But if convicted, he only faces life in prison. No death penalty possibility in this. Yeah, no death penalty being discussed right now. And he's pleaded not guilty, as I said before. But yeah, the big thing to watch out for today is just when is this trial going to start? And when that happens, it's going to be really interesting to hear sort of the things that investigators gathered about Cole Allen and, you know, what sort of they were able to sort of gather as far as what the heck was the motive for this. Tom Dempsey outside the federal court in the District of Columbia. Keep us posted on what you hear, Tom. You got it. Thank you. There you go. Tom Dempsey from News Nation. I guess he wouldn't face. No one died. So I guess there would be no. That was kind of dumb of me to ask that. But that's a, I mean. Attempted assassination of president is about as serious a charge you can get, but he does face life imprisonment. We'll see if that judge sets a trial date today. So Tom Dempsey there outside the federal court, after news, weather and traffic, we'll go back to the nation's capital. Check in with White House correspondent Scott McFarland. Still to come, a possibility of two major solar projects in South Georgia could be a game changer. We'll go in depth on that big local story. Still to come on the Mark Air Show.

1038 on the Mark Am Show coming 30 minutes. Alex Harris from Bloomberg's going to join us live. The bond market in upheaval right now as the national debt has topped $40 trillion. Joining us live from the nation's capital, Washington correspondent Scott McFarland. Scott, good morning, my friend. Hey, Mark, good morning. We're getting a lot of angst in Atlanta about this national debt hitting that $40 trillion number. Anyone talking about it on Capitol Hill today? If they were here, if they were here, Mark. They are either vacationing, trying to scramble to save their jobs, or a lot of members of Congress are actually making the trek to Georgia to help with the statewide races there and be surrogates or help with campaign fundraising. But speaking of money, yeah. They're concerned about the debt. Nobody's getting serious about it except for one or two members of Congress who have the, I guess, the safety net of being lame ducks. This guy named Bill Cassidy, you've heard of him, obviously, from Louisiana. He's trying to take his final months of banging the drum on social security, that we've got to figure out how to reduce the cost of social security, to reduce the debt and to save social security. But he's cloaked in this, you know... this wonderful safety robe of I'm not in office in January, so I don't have any political downsides to say what I want to say. We hear about the debt and the deficit a lot when people are on the campaign trail. Like, if elected, I am going to fight the, I'll drop the debt. And then that people get in an office and it doesn't go down. Even Doge was supposed to trim our spending and eliminate the debt. But it just keeps climbing and climbing. Because where they have to cut is places they don't want to cut. Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid are sacrosanct. I mean, they're necessary components of a safety net that's been there for half a century. And it seems like a good idea to lower the debt, but there's no realistic way to get after it. You know, they tried this three-card Monty game of... Doge, which Elon Musk predicted would cut a trillion dollars in spending. Doge ended up costing more than it saved because of the need to reconstruct agencies, hire people back, and move things around in a way that we're not efficient. I don't know who's got a plan, but anybody who's got a plan has got political... I guess, rickety bridges to run over first? Yeah, I mean, it's untenable. And, you know, the interest payments alone. are kneeling a trillion dollars a year, which is almost what we spend on our defense budget. We had some breaking news out of Atlanta this morning. Bad news for the city of Atlanta, and Atlanta mayor is pretty mad. Atlanta is now out of contention for hosting the 2028 Democratic National Convention. Atlanta, Chicago, paired from the list, three remaining finalists, Boston, Denver, Philadelphia. I mean, economically would have been a big boost, but at the end of the day, does it matter where the Dems or the Republicans hold their convention?

A lot of that symbolism, but I think a lot of that's an old-timey notion. It was a very 1980s, 1990s thing to think about what city you want to amplify, where you want to make some type of overture to swing voters. I think that's just an old-time notion because it's a different ecosystem now where people aren't watching things live on television or soaking them in the way they used to. Everything is socialized now through a way that seems invisible. Like you don't know where these clips are coming from. Does everybody know where those viral clips of Senator Jon Ossoff? from Atlanta came in the past few days? Or do they just know those clips existed? I'm wondering if they have to be strategic politically with where they pick conventions now. That's interesting. Yeah, I mean, we've played the clip. We've covered the clip, but I have no idea the origin of the clip. Let's stick with Senator Jon Ossoff. He is adamant that he has no intention to run for president in 2028. But nationally, it seems like he's the rising star and is inevitably going to run for president. intentionally or not he has lifted himself in the last seven days to top of the i guess top of the discussion here in washington tops of the names being bandied about he's really controlling the message in washington and he's doing it from atlanta by the way and That is intentional, I think, by Senator Jon Ossoff, but he also has dual purposes here. He's got to cement a re-election in a state where he shouldn't be such a heavy favorite, but I think by the estimates here he is. And he's also got to keep open the prospect of 2028, if for no other reason, because it generates interest, fundraising, and energy behind whatever agenda he tries to push his senator. This is... nothing but political upside for Jon Ossoff, and he clearly has shown his party, clearly, Mark, that he can get in the White House's head. He can make them respond. And that, I think, is what a lot of Democrats say they're looking for this year and beyond. Yeah, and you look at the stark comparison of what Senator Jon Ossoff doing to what Gavin Newsom has been doing for the last two years, you know, trying to get under the president's skin, basically, you know, mocking him on social media in the same style that he uses. But the blows haven't landed as hard as the quick jabs we've seen from Senator Jon Ossoff recently. Two different styles, even though they're trying the same thing, to punch back at the White House, to fight back and to do so in the president's own, you know. mannerisms, through clips and through social media and through some pretty

stinging criticisms. Newsombs has been more cartoonish. You know, you know, trying to mock or mimic the president's all caps, random punctuation social media posts, lots of, you know, lots of boisterousness and lots of, you know, caricatures. Assov does it in the way we've all become accustomed to, which is through his very steady rhythm, through his very moderate tone, just more cutting and more subtle and Maybe that's more effective at this moment. Maybe there's a fatigue and an exhaustion with cartoonishness. White House correspondent Scott McFarlane joining us live on the Mark Aram Show. A couple of big headlines after the Tuesday primaries. Let's start in the Sunshine State where the Democratic Socialist candidate beat the carpet-bagging Lieutenant Colonel Alec Vindman, who dropped into Florida run. And she didn't just beat him. He outraised her like 18 to 1, and she trounced him in that race. Well, voters can smell carpetbagging a mile away. It doesn't matter what state, doesn't matter what party. That's always a punch that lands if you're running against somebody, and that somebody is not from your neighborhood, your community. Alex Vindman was not viewed as an active campaigner, but he sure did draw a lot of donations from the National Party. He had many millions of dollars. A lot of those donations came from out of state, but that's... part of the problem here, Mark. What we're seeing evolve in 2026 is an anti-establishment wave, not an anti-Trump wave, not an anti-Republican wave, an anti-establishment wave. If you are viewed as part of the establishment, you have higher hurdles to surmount. And I think Alex Vindman came across as somebody who was fueled by the establishment. This is not a great time to be Chuck Schumer or Mike Johnson or John Thune or all these names of the people who run the parties. This is a great time to be viewed as an outside. and that's part of the hurdle for a lot of candidates in high office and small office across Georgia. We've got the final four candidates. Alaska runs their election a little different, but we know who's going to be on the ballot in November. Did the Democrats have a chance to flip that seat in Alaska? I think the Democrats are now the overwhelming favorite to flip the seat in Alaska. Wow. How do we know that? unique, if not weird, way they run their primaries in Alaska is basically everybody's on the same ballot and the top four people move on. Okay, so we know what voters are going to decide when those four people are on the ballot and the Democrat won by a lot. The same four people are running in November and the Democrat just won by a lot. I'm not sure what Republicans are going to do to flip the script here. They had a chance to outflank Democrats and beat them this week and they didn't. Something big is going to have to change for Republicans to salvage what is now a Republican-held seat. Yeah, we shall see. A lot of races we are going to be watching. We didn't expect to watch six months ago. Scott, one of my daily pre-show routines is checking out your substack. Folks want to subscribe. What's the best way to do it? Appreciate that on substack. Scott McFarland reports and then twice a day, every day, seven days a week on YouTube. And let me just double down on Mayor Dinkins. I'm disappointed Atlanta doesn't have the convention. I was hoping for a employer paid trip to Atlanta in 28. So let me just tell you, I feel the pain. Well, if it goes to B.

Boston. I am a big lobster roll chowder guy. So maybe... Quick, Deborah, toss me a hacky sack. For sure. This was my hacky sack music. Blues Travelers on the state of 1999. Sad news. Blues traveler bassist Bobby Sheehan passed away at age of 31. Me, not going to class. Listen to blues traveler and hacking a sack at Marys College. All right. After the primaries on Tuesday, I mentioned that the carpet baggers got smushed in the primaries in Florida, and I got emails saying, what the hell is a carpet bagger? First of all, whoa, how do you not know that? That was taught in history class for me. For sure, I had it in history class. Absolutely. So just I guess I need to educate. We'll take you back to class here. The term carpetbagger originated in the U.S. during the Reconstruction era after the American Civil War. White Southerners used as a negative word for northerners who moved to the south. The name came from cheap travel bags made out of pieces of carpet. I thought everyone knew what carpet. Do we need to freshen that up for the 21st century? Like, oh, he's a Samsonite. Right? Does I have the same negative energy to it? I don't know. What's a cheaper brand of luggage? If no one knows what carpet bagger is, I mean, literally, I got email saying, what the hell is a carpet bagger? So do we need to freshen it up for the 21st century? Making something ticky, talk friendly? Yeah, like that was the thing I can. What a Samsonite? You're not even from here. Here's another one. Pull yourself up by your bootstraps. I have never owned a pair of boots with straps, to be honest with you, but I know what the term means. Do we have to update that for the younger kids and pull yourself up by your shoelaces? Something? I don't know. They all wear slip-on shoes now. Oh, is it? Crocs. Pull yourself up by your crocs. Yes, Vinny. Yes. All right, so we're going to make this happen. Instead of a carpetbagger, oh, he's just a Samsonider. Unless you can come up with something better, but I like that. Yeah, I feel like Samson. It's too general. Pull yourself up by your crocs. That is going to stick. Well done. Vinnie's a wordsmith. We didn't even know. All right. When we come back after news, weather and traffic, we're going to check in with Bloomberg News, Alex Harris. The debt hits $40 trillion, and the bond market is going berserk. How it impacts us. Plus, Deborah's got tickets to give away to see ACDC. If you have suggestions on carpet baggers and pull yourself up by your bootstraps terms, hit me up on social at Mark Aram or just go to Mark Aram.com and click contact us.